Not so fast, you Serb.

And the aura of Kirsty COventry increases yet again, with what could essentially be Zimbabwe's only gold, and last medal at these Olympics. She outdoes Margaret Hoelzer in the 200-meter backstroke. Meanwhile, Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers dump Martin Laciga and Jan Schnider in men's volleyball.

Not on my watch, Milorad Cavic. Not on my fucking watch will you spoil the party. Michael Phelps outdoes the American racing for Serbia in an Olympic record time. Andrew Lauterstein of Australia gets the bronze.

He's tied with Mark Spitz. Bring on tomorrow. That's for busting our water polo team, Milo.

I will say that this was not his best swim, but he got just enough to win. And that, everyone, is what matters.

NEXT!

Time Out: Long Beach Pony League

I take a time-out from the hullabaloo of the Olympics to let you know that Long Beach Pony League is on the cusp of greatness. Bring on Taiwan or Puerto Rico. More so those Taiwanese.

LB rally places team in title tilt

YOUTH BASEBALL: Team rallies late with three runs, will face Taiwan or Puerto Rico.
By Brian Biaotto, Correspondent

The Long Beach All-Stars scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning and were able to hold off Tamiami, Fla., 9-7, at the Pony World Series in Washington, Pa. to advance to the championship game Saturday at 10 a.m. PDT.

They did it in spite of committing four errors, several base running blunders, leaving 12 runners on base and trailing 6-3 in the sixth inning.

Daniel DeWolf was the star of the game, going 5-for-5 with two doubles, three RBIs, three runs scored and stole three bases for Long Beach.

Chase DeJong came in and closed out the win for Long Beach, going the seventh inning and allowing a run.

DeJong struck out two to secure the Long Beach spot in the title game.

"The atmosphere was electric and you could feel the tension in the air," Long Beach manager Ken Jakemer said. "This was the worst defensive night we've had and we were just fortunate we hit so well. We will need to play our best baseball to win the championship on Saturday."

Soloman Williams went the first four innings for Long Beach, allowing four runs, but only two were earned. Williams gave up six hits, walked one and struck out four.

A leadoff walk and an error in the bottom of the fourth inning did Williams in, then Tamiami scored four runs to take a 5-3 lead.

Long Beach came back with three runs in the top of the sixth inning to take a 6-5 lead.

Oliver Van Buskirk went 1 innings before being replaced by DeWolf, who inherited a bases loaded and two-out jam.

DeWolf hit a Florida batter to bring in the tying run, but got Joey Gomez to get out of the inning.

Thomas Walker had two hits and drove in four runs, Oliver Van Buskirk hit a solo home run to start the sixth inning rally and Avery Flores had two hits and scored three times.

Said Jakemer: "I don't want to begin thinking where we'd be without Daniel's (DeWolf) performance tonight."

Long Beach (14-0) saw undefeated Taiwan lose its first game of the tournament Thursday in a 7-4 setback to Puerto Rico.

The winner of today's rematch will face Long Beach on Saturday in the title game.

Even more thoughts from Day 7

Roger Federer is on the decline. First, he loses to Rafael Nadal in the finals at Wimbledon. ANd now, in Beijing, he loses to James Blake in the quarterfinals. What is up with Roger? This guy, who once was in the company of Tiger and Thierry, has been on the downswing as of late. If he gets the top seed at Flushing Meadows, I will be crying foul. That honor should go to Rafael Nadal.

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With China due for gold in badminton, judo and weightlifting, they are going to gain some ground back on us in the total medals and golds. Wonder how long they will keep it up.

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Canada is looking for some payback in soccer after we pasted them in softball (much to their own undoing). I am not putting my money on that happening, though.

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We barely did better than the Chinese in the Team Sprint today. We finished 8th, they finished 9th, we got in, they didn't.

Whew.

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Our USA men's quadruple sculls side saved our skins. We finished in the top three to qualify for the final. Not as good as Italy, but better than France. And I just found out that we got a little payback for what Cuba's baseball side did to us (although to be honest, it's our fault for not getting out best team [i.e. committed MLB players] out there).

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While I'm steaming at our lack of punch in baseball and archery, the Chinese supporters are coming after the men's soccer team for their suckitude the same way we are for our USA side.

The irony is this: both women's sides are still in the tournament. We face Canada, they face Japan.

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Okay, maybe we didn't have it as bad. They had two losses and a draw; we had one of each (W, D, L). We still got eliminated, though.

Unfortunately for the ladies, Mother Nature intervened again, with the ladies 1-0 up on Canada in the 20th minute. Good thing USA softball team finished their games already. A possible serendipity of a blessing.

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As the Williams sisters took out Sugiyama and Morita, the match between James Blake and Chile's Fernando Gonzalez was nothing short of entertaining. It was one of those classics you couldn't get out of your head, albeit it was just a mere best-of-three.

Both players made the most of it. Ultimately, it was the Chilean, who looked to improve on his bronze-medal finish in Athens, getting a shot at perhaps Rafael Nadal (unless Novak Djokovic spoils the party), 4-6, 7-5, and 11-9.

Something about the poor choice of music for Beijing at the tennis courts is being talked about on NBCOlympics.com. Looks like the Parade of Nations wasn't the only miss for the committee soundtrack-wise. I take it most of the home fans haven't been to the All England Club their entire lives.

Figures.

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Texas's Leonel Manzano finished outside the top 5 in his heat. He was sixth. There can be no solace from finishing sixth if your time is not the top four among those outside the top five in any of the heats. He's going to have to play the waiting game.

His countrymen Lopez LOmon and Bernard Lagat move on to the next round. He also move on with one of the four best times outside of the top five in each heat. Not bad.

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With the women's volleyball game against China going on at the same time as the basketball game against Spain, I flip a coin in a best-of-seven to see which one I should check first.

It's basketball in a clean sweep. However, Matt Vasgersian on the USA Network says that "For those of you wanting the see the USA women's basketball take on Spain, we can only be on one place at one time, so we will show you the soccer first..."

That effectively made my coin flip moot. I am resigned to the volleyball.

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MIdway through the first game, MSNBC also decides to cut to another press conference regarding the situation in Georgia. I thought they were not supposed to mix sport with politics. I believe this justifies the futility of that premise.

So I switch back to the soccer, only to see Canada tie the match up.

Luckily for me, Dubya had only a few words to say, before heading off. Thanks for gutting the best part of the game, you GOP asshole! And now back to the volleyball.

The USA fails to hold off China in Game 1, losing 25-23. I hurl an empty water bottle at the screen in disgust.

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Meanwhile, I check online the women's basketball team, and even they are struggling. 31-25 lead over Spain with 5:19 to go in the second. I'm thinking: what the bloody hell is going on with the USA women today?

I mean, the basketball team is bouncing back to end up trouncing them, but the soccer and especially volleyball teams are looking flat-out awful and need top ask themselves the question, "Is it in you?".

I need some Gatorade.

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Christian Cantwell give the USA their first track and field medal at these games, and it's a silver in the shot put. POland's Tomasz Majewski took home the first gold. Shalane Flanagan brought home bronze in the women's 10,000 meters as Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba brough home the gold.

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To my sheer relief, the women's volleyball team ended up stunning the Chinese team and the home crowd, 23-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-20, 15-11. They went on a tear late in the fourth, and they never looked back.

You're good, Jennifer Lang Ping. You're good.

Also, the USA's women's soccer team rode on Natasha Kai's heroics in the 101st minute to beat Canada 2-1 in extra time. Au revoir, Even Pellerud. To my surprise, the Chinese women also failed to deliver, losing to Japan 2-0. Uh oh...Now the home folks there deserve to be displeased.

But what about Jenny and Pia's girls. I mean, I knew that they had to stop the bleeding fast, and make it an all-or-nothing deal if they want to contend for some shiny pendants. So I was quite pleased that they finally got the job done, a testament of their resilincy. I was thinking, "Torrent, baby."

Archery and baseball letdowns among a plethora of fail

Ronda Rousey is the only one from our side who will be getting a medal in judo. And for her, it's a bronze.

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The women's water polo team marches on, beating Russia 12-7. Meanwhile, the Bryan Brothers will be facing Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka in the semis and the WIlliams sisters are at work against Ai Sugiyama and Ayumi Morita.

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Interesting note about Matthew Emmons, who got silve in the Men's 50-meter Rifle Prone. His wife is Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic. She got the gold. And get this: both of them are from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, the defending NCAA Rifle Champions.

That explains it. Matt owes Kate dinner though, I would imagine. And some. I choose not to comment further on that.

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The next big small country hero is a man by the name of Tuvshinbayar Naidan. His gold in judo, the first-ever gold for Mongolia, caused a party never before seen in Ulan Bator, the nation's capital. They will dedicate a lot of stuff in him name, I guarantee you. It's a national holiday.

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The Cat Returns (in spite of giving up a no-no). Thank you Mother Nature for your divine intervention. The USA reeled off 8 unanswered runs in the 6th inning to take it, 8-1.

Bring on Taiwan-er, Chinese Taipei.


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In spite of our success in gymnastics and swimming, there are some events where we have flat-out failed to show up. Disappointments that demand major administrative overhaul. And I mean MAJOR. So while the day wasn't as lousy as yesterday...we've had our share of lousy performances too.

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AG Kruger III failed to qualify for the final round of the hammer throw. Daniel McCormick lost to Lasha Gujejiani of Georgia. One of the few times where a Georgian outdoes an American. This wasn't the biggest downer today.

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Wouldn't you know it, the next person to dope is a North Korean, followed by a Vietnamese. Kim Jong Su and Thi Ngan Thuong Do doped. For Kim Jong Su, this especially depressing because he won medals in shooting: silver and bronze.

While this is bad for North Korea, its a schadenfruede shooting theatre for the USA. We are now at 44 medals, since Jason Turner gets the bronze.

That's three sheep gone astray. Poor Kim is going to need to defect ASAP in a hurry if he wants to save his life. I would imagine they would execute him for this.

For Thi Ngan, this was unfortunate. She was last in the floor exercise during qualification, but she was misinformed on what to take, and what not take. Given that she's from Vietnam, she may also need to seek asylum fast.

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Perhaps the only major downer today teamwise is the baseball team. They lost to Cuba, 5-4. I don't know about you, but I think the only sports where we are doing reasonably well against Cuba is beach volleyball. That's it.

And to think my Galaxy tying Chivas USA 2-2 earlier tonight was crap enough...we REALLY need to send in our best players a la World Baseball Classic down there. This is unacceptable. We really need to send out our World Baseball Classic squad the next time we compete...which is...2016 at the earliest. Fresno State could beat this USA side. Utterly crap.

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There is some reason to believe that China's women's gymnastics team lied about their age. He Kexin, one of the members was said to be 13 or 14, and not 16. There was an article on this in the Xinhua News, which was taken down, but it did say that she was below the minimum age requirement.

Now, I don't know about the rule if a team lies about their age while winning gold, if it means that they will be stripped or if the gymnast in question is off the record, but let me be honest with you: I don't have any issues of China winning gold, or any medal for that matter. The question is: "Did they play by the rules?" If they didn't (and this is CHINA we're talking about here; they do things a WHOLE LOT DIFFERENTLY when it comes to gray zones like this), then the team needs to be penalized in a manner that is fair to the other athletes and teams competing.

Plain and simple.

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Double sculls has not been friendly to us this Olympics. Our women finish behind the Greeks-of all teams!-to end up racing in the "B" final. Same thing for light weight men's fours. Our team finishes dead last in our semifinal.

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Speaking of absolute crap, archery has to be a big disappointment here in the states. Obviously badminton deserves to be at the top of the list, but to find out that no one from the USA will medal in archery deserves a moment of silence. Victor Wunderle, our best hope for a medal here, loses to Juan Rene Serrano from Mexico, securing our futility.

Crank up the Border Patrol and send in the Minutemen and Taps bugle boy for good measure; archery is now rendered by yours truly as a forgotten sport. And this is from someone who comes from a city with an archery centre that was part of the Olympics in 84.